St. David is the patron saint of Wales who, during his lifetime in the 6th century AD, founded around twelve monasteries, including the Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) on the western headland of Pembrokeshire. It is believed that he died on the 1st of March, 589 and he was canonised by Pope Callixtus II in 1120 during a time of Welsh resistance to the Normans.

Now, the feast of St. David’s Day is a time of great celebration. People wear daffodils and leeks, symbols of Wales and Saint David respectively, and eat traditional Welsh food such as cawl (a traditional Welsh soup, the national dish of Wales) and Welsh rarebit (melted cheese on toasted bread), and women wear traditional Welsh dress.

‘Tinkers Cake’ is a traditional Welsh apple cake recipe made historically for travelling ironworkers in the valleys of South Wales. This recipe is a modern twist on the classic recipe, turning it into cupcakes with the addition of Welsh cider in the frosted topping.

This recipe also includes wholemeal spelt flour, which was a common cereal crop in the Iron Age and has experienced a revival in the last decade or so. This, plus the crunchy demerara sugar, the grated apples (which I’ve left unpeeled for added flavour and texture) and the flavoursome pieces of stem ginger make a rather fantastic savoury-sweet muffin perfect for breakfast or a mid-morning/afternoon snack.

I confess I have only ever visited Wales once, a very, very long time ago. A friend and I took a road trip from Aberdeen in Scotland all the way down to Fishguard, a beautiful Welsh coastal town. After getting lost in Runcorn we turned south and drove through the most stunning landscape – narrow winding roads flanked with high stone walls and thick forests.

It’s a place I’ve been wanting to return to ever since. A climb of Snowdon beckons!

There has never been a better time for Welsh food and drink, with the number of products attaining European protected food name status nearly doubling in the past year and the number of Welsh entries for the prestigious Great Taste Awards reaching a record high.

Producers from across Wales have come together to challenge consumers to buy Welsh this March. The challenge will be kick-started to coincide with St David’s Day, 1st March 2018, as the largest celebration of Welsh food and drink ever held on a UK wide level is set to go ahead. A celebration which includes this rather scrummy recipe blog post for a modern twist on a classic Welsh recipe.

Apple & Ginger Muffins with Cider Frosting

‘Tinkers Cake’ is a traditional Welsh apple cake recipe made historically for travelling iron
workers in the valleys of South Wales. Here’s a modern twist with the addition of Welsh cider for
the topping.

Prep Time20mins

Cook Time25mins

Total Time45mins

Course: Snack

Cuisine: British

Servings: 12muffins

Author: Elizabeth

Ingredients

for the apple & ginger muffins

200gramsself-raising flour

1tspbaking powder

1tspground ginger

50gramswholemeal spelt flour

100gramsdemerara sugar

2eggs

125mlmilk

4tbspbuttermelted (or sunflower oil)

250gramscooking applesgrated

50gramsstem gingerchopped

for the cider frosting

50gramsbuttermelted

175gramsicing sugar

2tbsptraditional Welsh cider

1tbsppumpkin seeds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 160 C fan/ Gas 4.

Mix together the flours, ginger, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and melted butter (or oil), and pour into the dry ingredients.

Fold in the grated apples and chopped ginger and spoon into 12 muffin cases.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack while you prepare the frosting.

To make the frosting, mix together the melted butter, icing sugar and traditional Welsh cider until smooth.

Frost each cooled muffin and sprinkle the tops with the pumpkin seeds.

This sponsored recipe post is part of the Welsh Government’s #ThisisWales / #GwladGwlad campaign, ensuring Wales and its first class produce are centre stage on the patron’s saint day. All thoughts and opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me to do what I love: mess up my kitchen and share recipe stories.

We had friends from the US come to visit us over Christmas and New Year, and we tooke them to North Wales several times to see castles, pretty towns and of course to the obligatory craft centre where they indulged in some retail therapy and we had a fabulous lunch of Welsh produce. I like Welsh cakes and also Caerphilly cheese.

I love the sound of the recipe! I’ve never heard of Tinkers Cake before, but it sounds delicious and I love this take on it. I love anything apple and if it has ginger in even better, so the muffins sound right up my street 🙂

Wales is somewhere I’ve been plenty of times – I’ve lived in Somerset my whole life, so it’s just a fairly short hop over the bridge! My best memory is probably when we went to Bluestone a few years ago – the only time I’ve ever been to Wales for longer than a day trip. It was fantastic, though unfortunately we did get the typical Welsh weather 🙂

Two very vivid memories of our honeymoon in North Wales 49 years ago in August. Hubby picked me up to carry me over the threshold of our room…..and dropped me. Also on a day’s touring stopped to make a brew and were invaded by a group of a dozen or so inquisitive sheep who showed far too much interest in me! PS. Still happily married 🙂

What’s not to love about this recipe? I adore muffins, apples and ginger so this is perfect. Wales is a gorgeous place to visit. We’ve stayed a few times in North Wales. Caernarfon Castle was on my bucket list ever since seeing Prince Charles’s inauguration when I was little. It didn’t disappoint me and we’ve been back a few times now.

I live in Wales and hubby is Welsh. I remember meeting his mum for the first time and her making Welsh cakes on the Aga hotplate for me., introducing me to the Welsh speciality of laver which is seaweed and eulogising about the beauty of Gower where we holiday annually and have been doing so for nearly 40 years now.

So technically I am Welsh being born in Cardiff! Although we don’t visit much ourselves as we no longer have family there. I like the idea of making this into cupcakes and you cant have cupcakes without frosting! Will have to give this a go

When I was little I remember being taken to Wales on our family holiday every summer. We used to go
camping and I remember thinking the places used to be like something out of the enid Blyton books I used to enjoy

I’m Welsh and was brought up in North Wales so have never tried tinker cakes or these muffins (which look delicious btw) I do however have fond memories of my Mammy boiling Cawl on the stove and made it myself for my daughter on Thursday to keep the St David’s Day traditional going in our family as my daughter is English. The smell reminds me of my family home and it’s such an easy recipe to make and a brilliant way to use up leftovers x

I moved to Wales over 40 years ago, I only came to visit friends and never went home!We have been snowed in this St Davids Day but even better reason to sample my favourite – Penderyn whisky and their delicious Brecon Gin

I have never been to Wales and would like to go. These muffins look delicious! I like apple and ginger and with the cider frosting sounds wonderful. I need to make these and have with a good cup of tea.

The recipe sounds delicious. My grandparents lived near the border of England and Wales so ventured there with my family when I was a child. Surprisingly, I’ve not been there on holiday as a adult, have in fact only been once to Swansea and that was a work related trip. Would like to have a family holiday there perhaps in Tenby or somewhere like that.

The recipe sounds and looks delicious! My memory of Wales is visiting my Aunt and Uncle at their pub when I was little. I loved it because I could drink as much coke as I wanted as it was on draught behind the bar and could help myself – I was in sugar heaven!!

Happy ST David’s Day and what a perfect way to celebrate the patron’s day and Welsh heritage which these delicious apple and ginger muffins. I saw your tweet so I knew that I had to come and experience your delicious muffins through your post.

I’ve never been to Wales. I always try to get there and it doesn’t happen. Next time I’m in England I must make a point to visit because my Mum said it’s gorgeous! Now on to those muffins 🙂 The combination of flavours sounds delicious. I may give this a go before the weather gets to warm to turn on the oven.

These look delicious and I will be trying them. We lived in Wales some 25 years ago, in the valleys in fact. My children were young and St Davids day was coming up. We were asked to all make Welsh cakes to send in to school for judging! It was long before the internet and I had no recipe for Welsh cakes, I asked a neighbour for a recipe and sent in something which resembled welsh cakes not a jot! Not my finest hour!

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